Wednesday, February 20, 2013

Sarah Lacy learned much from Michael Arrington

Like "How To Hate Yahoo Without Really Trying" and "How To Presume You Know How to Turn Around A Giant Company." These two hilarious skills (also two main arrows in the quiver of blogger "analysis" these days) are on full display in this pretty empty article on pandodaily.

First half of the article is basically explaining to another site that people in the Valley operate on another level than "most" Americans. You know, like how most Americans barely know how to use anything?

Yet in tech startup meccas like SF and NYC, people presume that all humans would simply rather be wearing a pair of glasses that allow you to "share" all your moments of glory: Like sitting on the couch eating an entire pint of ice cream whilst watching a COPS marathon. Riveting!

Anyway, then Lacy goes on to point out how hard it must have been to revamp the Yahoo main page. Yes, I bet it was. And then she goes on to prognosticate that "It's still not goin to save Yahoo."

Well, duh. A homepage makeover will not ignite the imagination and it won't convert former users. Hell, if anything it can (see Netscape) piss off the base and LOSE short-term traffic.

However, as one who also works at a once-mighty portal company, I would caution Lacy that it takes time to turn around such a massive ship. How long has Meyer been in place? This move is actually quite fast, as was the awesome redo of the Flickr app.

Look, first you have to bring a company up to the present. THEN you can focus on leaping ahead. Why is this so hard for "get it shipped to your door within seconds" Silicon Valley writers to grok?